Sensational

Today’s front-page caption is so NOT what a hurricane looks like coming onto shore. The father with 2 kids pointing at the coming onslaught is even more ridiculous. I’m sure most people will realize this is a “Photoshop Special” but I can’t help but wonder why BT finds it necessary to dramatize the beginning of hurricane season as if it were the Daytona 500, opening kick-off for the NFL, or the circus come to town.

We deserve better than network TV movie of the week style melodrama. What’s next? UFO abductions and/or celebrity deathbed confessions? BT takes journalism to a new level, too bad it’s a lower one. Any respect I might have had for BT as a credible new source (which really wasn’t all that much) was completely blown away by the hack-job, chain email, photo on the front page.

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As soon as I saw it, I recognized the cloud shot as being one of the mockups. The original shot (so I was told by a debunker) actually came from an approaching tornado-laden storm in, I think it was Kansas, maybe upper LA. (See the farmhouse down in the corner?)

Anyone who would stand out with their kids and look at something like that and stand and POINT would have to be irrevocably stupid. Maybe that was the point that they were trying to make - but they could have used a shot of Jim Cantore at Tybee during Floyd just as effectively. Ahem.

Nothing surprises me any more - ripoff pics are verboten for bloggers, but the BT unashamedly uses an uncredited photoshopped mockup on its front page to incite emotionalism. Shrug. (WWBWD) What would Bob Woodward do?

Whoa! Now, Ted, didn't you get in trouble for posting a photo that wasn't yours and for failure to give due credit? Gimmie a second while I *snicker*. ;o)

I'll have to agree, dumb move to have this as the front page. Not only due to the "photo", but the family standing on the beach as the "big one" rolls ashore and the caption says "know where to go". Just where do we go? To the beach to watch it... Matter of fact, let's bring the kids. ROFL!!!

Actually, I would love a response from Lisa Smith on this topic. How do you threaten to remove someone's pictures for not giving due credit, but then turn around and publish one off the net that was not taken by you or given credit? Looking forward to this response.

Despite what anyone may feel is suggested by the cover photo, the fact that its byline reads "photo illustration" should quell any doubts that it's Photoshopped. It's common practice, you can see it in Time and Newsweek all the time.

And about the background picture; I'm sorry, did I miss a lesson regarding collage images?

I'm not sniping, it's just that to me, the cover is just an illustration done with photos to get a point across.

even if it is an illustration, you surely don't want to suggest to anyone that with an hurricane approaching to go on the beach and look at it. And you can't say that people will know better than to do it, there are some really stupid folks out there!

I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult - Rita Rudner

I saw the fine print along the side, but I still question the use of the picture. What exactly is the point being conveyed? Whatever the meaning, and this is strictly a observation involving opinion, that front-page picture is way over the top... way, Way, WAY over the top. You

Anyone who would stand on a beach gazing at an oncoming death-cloud is gonna bite the big one somehow anyway. They'd get mesmerized by all the pretty lights on a nighttime highway, and WHAMMO. Crazy storm-gazing buggers.

to worry about today is a photoshop picture (that has fine print on the side), then our worries must be pretty trivial. Promote hurricane safety, write a blog. Print what a real hurricane looks like. Give tips on what works best for you. MY TIP: Hurricane's a-comin'...GET OUT!!!BWD, you're a weather guy, surely you have plenty of pictures, post a few. Give those who don't know what a hurricane looks like a chance to see from your point of view. It shouldn't be all THAT hard to do, is it?

Don't judge others & you won't be judged, don't condemn others or it'll all come back against you. Forgive others and you'll be forgiven. Luke 6:37

This has nothing to do with hurricanes or public safety. It has everything to do with misrepresenting the truth to inflame the public.

A hurricane from the perspective on land for the most part, looks pretty much like any other thunderstorm or shower. Not nearly as exciting as the above pictures, and I guess that's the whole point. Style over substance whenever possible... even if you have to Photoshop a few victims and a beach into the picture. Great Job!

I'm sure BWD would give a picture, if asked. Or OMG they have access to the internet they could have gotten a REAL picture but then it would not have been as sensational ie. makes someone pick up the paper.

I find this picture along the same lines as when they had Falwell's picture with the caption "Glad you're gone" or whatever it was. The front page lately is getting a little too Enguire-ish for me. But that is the job of a good layout team, to make things flashy so people will pick up your paper.

I agree that photo is not the front edge of a hurricane. It appears to be an odd shaped thunder storm. I've seen several hurricanes, including the '40 Hurricane, Gracie and several smaller ones here and none of the leading edges are so dramatic. In fact, the beginning cells on the outer edges are nothing but very mild showers with unique misty rain droplets. The thunderstorms associated in the bands do increase in intensity as the center approaches. The winds in the thunderstorms add to the circular winds around the bands.

In fact, the winds in some violent thunderstorms, when added to the circulating bands, can cause isolated severe damage. Some people will survive the circulating bands and say, "Well that wasn't so bad." Meanwhile a mile or so away, homes may be completely destroyed because of the violent thunderstorm.

Which means that anyone staying in a hurricane is playing the lottery. You might get by with just the circular winds, but if you get unlucky and have one of the violent thunderstorms or down drafts,or tornado, you may not survive.

Another over dramatized event is the tidal surge. We had one in the '40 storm that flooded much of Beaufort. There was about 5' of water on the old point with water under the homes that are raised off the ground. A shrimp boat was left high and dry on the corner of Bay and Charles. I was at my grandmother's two story house on the point during the storm.

There was no giant wave that came crashing down as depicted in some artist's depictions. The tide came in normally, but didn't stop coming in until it reached the flood level. It did look weird to see the water continue coming in, covering streets and going under the raised houses. Some that were about 2' off the ground did get flooded. After the storm moved further north, the tide started ebbing as it usually does.

If the picture is so "trivial" then why is it worthy of the front-page? I also wonder why BT (as usual) is completely mum on the subject?

Sure the info inside was fairly helpful. What I can't seem to bring across is that this photo took a bit of doing. Not a whole lot of work, but still somebody went through the trouble to make a realistically FAKE picture and pass it off as a hurricane.

Could BT have not used any of hundreds of aerial satellite hurricane photos, authentic storm captions or even aftermath pics? It would have still had the dramatic effect and been truthful to boot. Today's front page picture is an insult to my intelligence.

I wasn't asked to submit anything for this article, nor did I even know they were printing it until I read the paper this morning. If asked, I would have submitted a photo from the internet and then I would have been banned from the blogs because it wasn't my own.

By the way, I have to give props to the Island Packet. They were the first ones to write something about the upcoming hurricane season (yesterday) and what they put together was top-notch IMHO.

OK, I'll say it: I'm stupid. I didn't notice the doctored photo at all, and while I'm glad you mentioned it MH, in the end it doesn't change what I think of BT. We already know they take shortcuts, maybe because they have to, maybe because it's easier. It's a sometimes entertaining paper that sometimes provides information and sometimes is available in hard copy and sometimes is available online. They thought little enough of bloggers to inflict Carzilla on us for a whole three days. C'mon MH, ya gotta give 'em credit for not patching Carzilla into the beach scene.

Wouldn't an illustration for dramatic effect be just as appealing and possibly more useful if the family in the photo had been depicted fleeing for their lives (say the flood scene in "The Bible" or something from "War of the Worlds") as opposed to peering inquisitively toward oncoming catastrophe?

Please give this guy a job so he can "fix" all that ails your FREE and wildly popular newspaper. BT falls short here, BT conspiracies there.....cut 'em some slack - daaaaaaaaang.

Can you imagine having your every workday performance scrutinized under an electron microscope? Like the rest of us, they're probably faced with deadlines, manpower shortages, and budget cuts. Though human and imperfect, I'm confident they are giving us their best effort day in and day out and appreciate their hard work and professionalism.

An easily downloaded picture of a hurricane from NASA would have been a lot simpler and equally dramatic as that doctored up job we got today.

Like this:

Just because your wife works at BT doesn't mean you have to take my criticism of the paper (which I admitted from the very beginning as a matter of opinion) as any more than than what it is... an opinion.

If that picture is your definition of "professionalism" I'd hate to see what we get on a "bad day".

give him a job to "fix" things. I so very much agree with TheVillian here. This whole blog has been purely laughable. Cut them a break, MH:>/ This is, just like all are entitled to, MY humble opinion!!!

Don't judge others & you won't be judged, don't condemn others or it'll all come back against you. Forgive others and you'll be forgiven. Luke 6:37

One could also state that if one's spouse was an employee of the school district, they might be biased about posts regarding education. Of course, this wouldn't necessarily be the case because married or no, people have their own thoughts and ideas. Look at Arnold and Maria!

a lie is a lie. If they wanted dramatic impact, why didn't they simply contact their "journalistic" brethren in NOLA or southern Miss? They've got loads of real pics. Or they might have included the editorial (thanks for the reprint IP) that one editor ran 3 weeks after the waters pushed ashore by Katrina rose 5 feet up the walls of his home located 30 feet above sea level. His apologies to the family he'd almost killed really drove home the point.
Might the answer be that some of BT's staff are just too lazy to warrant the title of journalist?

Hey now I said no one was underestimating you I didn't say something mean like when are you going to put away the artograph projector and move on to something besides painting from commercial photos because that would not be nice and supportive : 0 Wait a sec is there a connection between that and your defense of using appropriated images?

The wine cellar I mentioned a long time ago. Now how many basements have you seen around Bluffton?

I have to say the photoshop hurricane was a pretty good masking job. Was that done locally do you think?